148 PKAIRIE AND FOKEST. 



temperature or climate, as Wisconsin and Maine are almost 

 in the same latitude. 



Without further preamble, I will attempt a description. 

 The black bear is short in carcass, with an unusually baggy, 

 slack look ; the legs are long and powerful in their sweep, 

 and the animal can handle them with the skill and pro- 

 ficiency of a professed pugilist ; the head is very nearly an 

 equilateral triangle, with the nose for an apex ; the ears 

 are small and rounded, the same distance in situation 

 behind the eye that the eye is from the nose ; the measure- 

 ment in circumference close in front of the shoulder is 

 almost as great as behind, which gradually increases as it 

 ranges backwards till the loftiest point of the spinal 

 vertebrae is reached; while the hind limbs, from their 

 immense muscular power, as well as abundance of flesh, 

 appear like the extremities of a man encased in pegtop 

 trousers. In walking, the toes of the fore feet are turned 

 in, while the use of the nether limbs is so human as to 

 appear like a burlesque on genus homo ; but if a casual 

 observer be thus struck, the anatomist recognises in this 

 exaggerated formation the means supplied the animal by 

 nature to ascend trees, escape enemies, or earn its support. 

 The colour, when the pelt is prime, is glossy black ; but in 

 early spring a rufous tint is strongly developed ; this is 

 assisted by the undergrowth of wool becoming elongated, 

 and showing through the coarser black hairs that at other 

 seasons are the only visible covering, unless a close and 

 minute inspection be made. From the eyes, in a straight 

 line almost at right angles to the nose, the fur is brown, 

 with a tip of the same colour frequently over the eyebrow. 



